Remove all temple encroachments: Hindu religious and charitable endowments Minister

Department officials were instructed by Hindu religious and charitable endowments (HR & CE) Minister Sevur S Ramachandran to remove all encroachments in premises surrounding all temples across the state in the next three months. 

The minister was speaking at a review meeting in the city on Friday to discuss steps to prevent fire accidents in temples in the wake of the Meenakshi Amman temple incident and the burning of the sthala viruksha (sacred tree) at Thiruvalangadu Vadaranyeswarar temple. 

At the meeting, the means to ensure the strength of temple buildings were also discussed in respect of a few temple structures, including Tiruchendur Subramania Swamy temple’s roof collapse in recent months. HR and CE officials said the area of the encroached land would be decided after a survey of all the temples in the state. 

“The total number of temples under the control of HR and CE is 36,441. Unfortunately, we do not have a record of all encroachments since most were not done with our permission. Among them, a large number of commercial encroachments can be found in major temples visited by a large number of devotees. There are 5,231 such temples under the department, besides 3,527 unlisted ones. We will begin with the major temples,” an official said. 

Earlier, the minister said 2,563 acres of encroached temple lands had been restored to the temples in the last seven years. The land and the buildings built upon them worth Rs 3,354 crore had been retrieved by the HR and CE department, he said.  

He also told the officials that a committee to look into the safety of electric connections and strength of temple structures had been formed and it would submit its report soon. Officials must be prepared to implement its recommendations immediately, he added. 

Speaking at the review meeting, Ramachandran said each official in the department should intensify monitoring of temples and protect the structures without altering their antiquity. Speaking to the media, the minister said the government is very careful about executing temple renovation and conducting festivals as per the Agama rules, when asked about charges of devotees that violation of Agama rules had aroused divine anger, leading to temple mishaps. The fire service personnel rushed to the Madurai Meenakshi temple as soon as they received information about the fire accident and controlled the fire in two hours. 

Madurai district Collector had formed an inspection committee to continuously monitor and protect the temple. The HR and CE department too had formed a committee for the purpose.